The Obama Administration announced last week that, for current enrollees, insurance companies may extend into 2015 any health plans they offer in the individual or small-group market that do not comply with health reform’s standards and consumer protections. Congress, however, may consider proposals that go further — …

The Administration is expected this week to issue estimates of enrollment to date in the Medicaid expansion and the new health insurance marketplaces, health reform’s major coverage expansions that take effect in 2014. Examining the early experience with the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provides a …

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton recently indicated that the House may vote again on a one-year delay of health reform’s individual mandate — which will require most Americans to obtain health coverage or pay a penalty starting in 2014 — citing the current difficulties in enrolling through …

Low-income programs are not driving the nation’s long-term fiscal problems, contrary to the impression that a narrow look at federal spending during the Great Recession might leave.[1] In fact, virtually all of the recent growth in spending for low-income programs is due to two factors: (1) the economic downturn and (2) …

Some House members are urging Speaker John Boehner to resurrect the so-called “Boehner Rule,” which demands that any increase in the debt limit be accompanied by equal or larger reductions in spending.[1] Speaker Boehner has said, as recently as late August, that “we’re not going to increase the debt limit …

The economic recovery has yet to produce significant gains for Americans in the bottom and middle of the economic scale, Census Bureau data released this week show. The poverty rate remained unchanged at a high 15.0 percent in 2012 and median household income remained unchanged at $51,017, some $4,600 below its 2007 level. Income …

The Census Bureau announced Tuesday that the percentage of Americans without health insurance coverage declined in 2012 for the second consecutive year. (See Figure 1.) The number of uninsured Americans remained unchanged in 2012.
The Census data indicate that coverage gains among children, expanded private coverage among the …

The new Census figures demonstrate that the painfully slow and uneven economic recovery has yet to produce significant gains for Americans in the bottom and middle of the economic scale, with the poverty rate remaining unchanged at a high 15.0 percent in 2012 — the 11th year in the last 12 …

The Census Bureau will release estimates on September 17 of the number of Americans with and without health insurance coverage in 2012, based on its annual Current Population Survey (CPS). Other survey data and historical trends provide clues to what the Census data will likely show.
Preliminary survey data from the Centers for …

Now that Congress has returned from the summer recess, it will have to set funding levels for discretionary programs for fiscal year 2014 (or risk a government shutdown) and raise the debt ceiling (or see the nation default on legally binding financial obligations). In both areas, the House and Senate are far apart.
House …

Since the Great Depression, the United States has developed a set of supports to help low-income families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities make ends meet and obtain health care. Extensive research indicates that these supports lift millions of Americans out of poverty, help “make work pay” by supplementing low …

Bills introduced in the House (H.R. 763) and Senate (S. 603) would repeal the tax on health insurance providers that Congress enacted in 2010 to help pay for health reform (the Affordable Care Act, or ACA). The tax is one of a set of measures to expand health insurance coverage and slow the growth of health care costs without adding to the …

The Senate immigration reform bill establishes a long and difficult path to legal status that includes substantial fees and fines and tough restrictions on eligibility for federal assistance for immigrants who newly convert to a legal status. Yet, there will be efforts on the Senate floor to make it considerably more difficult for …

Medicare has grown financially stronger in both the short and long term compared to last year, but it continues to face financing challenges in the long run, today’s new report from its trustees shows. The projected date of insolvency for Medicare’s Hospital Insurance (HI) …

Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Hahn, and members of the subcommittee, I appreciate the invitation to appear before you today.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will extend health insurance coverage to 27 million people and help assure that Americans have access to affordable coverage. And it will do so in a fiscally responsible way. In …

Two prominent congressional Republicans have proposed placing a “per capita cap” on federal Medicaid funding, under which the federal government would no longer cover a fixed share of each state’s overall Medicaid costs but instead would limit each state to a fixed dollar amount per beneficiary.[1]
The per capita cap …

What Is Medicaid?
Created by Congress in 1965, Medicaid is a public insurance program that provides health coverage to low-income families and individuals, including children, parents, pregnant women, seniors, and people with disabilities. Medicaid is funded jointly by the federal government and …

The President’s fiscal year 2014 budget includes a proposal from previous Obama budgets to limit the tax subsidies that affluent Americans take for deductible expenses and some other tax expenditures. After the President made this proposal in previous budgets, some critics contended it would lead to substantial reductions in …

Commentators, pundits, and some policymakers routinely say that while the President’s new budget takes useful steps to reduce the cost of health care programs, the steps are small and rather timid. This judgment seems rooted in the belief that the budget’s changes affecting Medicare beneficiaries, which save a modest $64 …

The President’s 2014 budget is presented in two parts. One part includes the package of deficit- reduction policies that the President included in his last offer to Speaker Boehner during the “fiscal cliff” negotiations in December 2012. This package would reduce the deficit by $1.8 trillion over the next decade …

Under the new health reform law, people of modest means will get help paying for health insurance premiums and “cost-sharing” expenses — costs that people with insurance have to pay out-of-pocket like co-payments for doctor visits and hospital care — beginning in 2014. This help will come in the form of …

The Medicaid block grant proposal in the budget plan proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, which the House of Representatives passed on March 21, would cut federal Medicaid (and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP) funding by 31 percent by 2023, because the funding would no longer keep pace with health …

Below is a compilation of the CBPP analyses and blog posts on House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget, which the House has passed.
Overview/General
Statement: Robert Greenstein, President, on Chairman Ryan’s Budget Plan
March 12, 2013
“When House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan released his previous budget last …

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan justifies the massive cuts he proposes in programs for low- and moderate-income Americans in part by claiming that the current safety net “can create a powerful disincentive to get ahead.”[1] He uses this argument to defend converting both Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition …

The House and Senate are scheduled to consider the budget resolutions that their respective budget committees approved last week. These two budgets — one drafted by House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan, the other by Senate Budget Committee Chair Patty Murray — offer sharply contrasting visions.[1] Yet they are not …

“The DC Health Benefits Exchange Board’s recent decision to move to a unified health insurance market over the next two years will make it easier for small businesses to give their employees quality, affordable health insurance.
“Starting in 2014, under the Affordable Care …

Chairman Pitts, Ranking Member Pallone, and members of the subcommittee, I appreciate the invitation to appear before you today on the importance of preserving Medicare and Medicaid. Budgetary entitlements of many kinds are designed to guarantee Americans adequate protection in case of illness, disability, or economic misfortune. Efforts …

The Medicare proposals in the 2014 budget resolution developed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) are essentially the same as those in last year’s Ryan budget. Once again, Chairman Ryan proposes to replace Medicare’s guarantee of health coverage with a premium-support voucher and raise the age of eligibility …

We recently updated the percentage, below, from 66 to 72 percent, and the cuts, below, from $3.3 trillion to $3.1 trillion— and that’s because we updated our budget baseline primarily to assume that the sequestration budget cuts remain in effect.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s new budget plan would get at least 66 percent of its …

The budget that Senate Budget Committee Chair Patty Murray released yesterday stands in sharp contrast to the one that her House counterpart, Paul Ryan, released on Tuesday. As I wrote Tuesday, his budget is extreme.[1] Hers is more balanced and appropriate to meet the nation’s economic and fiscal challenges. The …

When House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan released his previous budget last year, I wrote that for most of the past half century, its extreme nature would have put it outside the bounds of mainstream discussion. It was, I wrote, “Robin Hood in reverse — on …

Executive Summary
With President Obama and lawmakers of both parties vowing to achieve further deficit reduction, the stakes are high for low- and moderate-income Americans. If policymakers heavily target programs that serve vulnerable Americans, they will run the risk of increasing poverty and hardship and reducing opportunity for …

Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Lewis, and members of the subcommittee, I appreciate the invitation to appear before you today.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will extend health insurance coverage to 27 million people and help assure that Americans have access to affordable coverage. And it will do so in a fiscally responsible way. In …

Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Finance Committee, I appreciate the invitation to testify here today. As we all know, the nation faces fiscal and economic challenges, and we will have to make some tough decisions to put the budget on a more sustainable fiscal course and to do so without hindering a still-too-weak economic …

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) recently posted to the Senate Budget Committee website a document that implies that programs targeted to low-income people provide lavish benefits that raise the typical poor household’s standard-of-living above that of the typical middle-income household.[1] The Sessions release, however, is deeply …

I appreciate the invitation to testify today on the impact of federal budget decisions on families and communities. This is an important matter. As you know, the nation will have to make tough decisions to put the budget on a more sustainable fiscal course. The issue is not only whether policymakers act to secure adequate …

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) establishes a health insurance exchange in every state. Exchanges are new competitive marketplaces offering an array of comprehensive health insurance plans for eligible small businesses and individuals, some of whom may qualify for federal tax credits to help cover the cost of coverage. Each exchange will be operated either by the state as a …

Nicholas Kristof published an important column in the New York Times recently about young children in some poor communities who face greatly diminished opportunities by the time they’re just 2 years old.[1] “Many low-income children never reach the starting line,” he notes.
Kristof points out that there are no magic …

Since President Obama and Congress enacted the “fiscal cliff” budget deal, congressional Republican leaders have vowed not to raise a dollar more in taxes for deficit reduction. All further deficit reduction, they say, must come from budget cuts, primarily from entitlement programs. That, however, would spare the broad …

In recent days, policymakers, pundits, and the media have debated whether the “fiscal cliff” budget deal was a victory or defeat for the President or congressional Republicans, progressives or conservatives, rich or poor, the economy or the deficit — you name it. Most of the commentary is unpersuasive, however, for …